His report read: “Jacob would achieve academic success if only he applied himself more.”
If only his teachers had realized it, Jacob applied himself all the time.
He applied himself like a poultice to his mother’s hurt, like a barrier against his father’s rage; like a determined but ineffective sticking plaster over the deep wounds in their marriage. He applied himself like an ointment to all the troubles and traumas of his friends.
He applied himself so thoroughly, so entirely that his soul was spread too thin, his identity too scraped clean to leave anything over for algebra or Shakespeare.
Tom Juniper Poetry 